1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optically pumped, conductively cooled solid-state slab laser having transparent, thermally conductive solid pump lamp housings bonded to the pumped faces of the slab for bi-directional cooling of the lasing medium by conduction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,913 to Morris et al. discloses a unitary solid state laser having a solid transparent housing with two cavities. A laser medium is embedded in one cavity and a pump lamp in the other. The housing completely surrounds the laser medium, so that cooling of the medium by the housing is omnidirectional.
Fluid cooled slab lasers are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,800,569 to Azad, 4,734,917 to Johnson, 4,468,774 to Robbins and 3,665,335 to Tomiyasu.